Tuesday, 17th November, Quito: Atahualpa’s Revenge
We’re both struck down by Bum Wee. Today is spent mostly sleeping. Once again, Mike awakes with a black tongue (as he had in Mexico when he was last ill), but this time we get it on camera. Niiiiiiiice.
Our hostess has organised a dinner interview with one of the most prominent archaelogists in the country, and a collector of pre-Colombian art. We dine with him and our host (gingerly, on soup) and learn the background of this extraordinary country – and his extraordinary love life (just divorced his wife of 30 years – who was 22 years older than him. And that was the reason they split up: they found that the age difference when they were younger was not such a factor, they both had energy and passion. Now that he is 62 and she is 84, they are in totally different stages on life)
Ecuador is a hugely diverse country. In this one small country, they have thousands of species of frogs, more orchids than anywhere else on the planet and an unrivalled biodiversity. This comes from the geographical differences in the country. Famous for Galapagos, which is the jewel in its biological crown. But to add to that, it has coast, rainforest and mountains. Hemmed in by the Andean mountain ranges to one side, the coast on the other, it sits at the top of the cooling Humboldt current (which comes up from the south, then turns outwards to Galapagos – which is why they have penguins there) and at the bottom of the tropical Panamanian current. It has everything.
It’s cultural identity is a little confused: pre-Colombus, it was part of the Incan empire which stretched northwards from Cuzco in southern Peru, with Quito governed by the Incan kind, Atahualpa, and Cuenca by his brother (whose name I can’t remember, of course). When the Spanish came, it was part of Peru, then part of Gran Colombia (Bolivar tried to unify his native Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador) which is why they all have such similar flags (Colombia and Ecuador are the same except for the crest in the middle).
Which all contributes to a fairly profound identity crisis. A great representation of this is the Panama Hat. Product of Cuenca in Southern Ecuador, but sold through Panama of old, and thus given that name. Panama Hats are only made in Cuenca (or at least, the real deal) yet who knew?
The people from the mountains (including the Quitenos) have a strong rivalry with the people from the coast (including Ecuador’s largest city, Guayaquil). The costenos think the people from the mountain are dullards, the people from the mountains think the people from the coast are brash and fast-living. Even now it’s its own a country, it feels divided.
